friends of friend (& high places)
by BeyondMyReach
Summary: In which Eiji is an Immortal and everything goes down a little differently.
1. Chapter 1

Many thanks, as always, to Aori for beta-ing.

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"You know it's a trap, right?" Arthur asks when Ash arrives at the warehouse dock after he took Skip and Eiji. "So why did you come?"

"I knew I'd have to settle it with you, sooner or later," Ash answers, and it is the truth, though not the entire truth. The relief that pierces through him like a bullet when the warehouse gate to the right opens to reveal Skip and Eiji, captured and bounded but alive and uninjured, betrays him, though he lets none of it show on his face.

"Let them go," Ash says, disregarding Skip's yells for him to run, and Arthur smiles, ugly and conniving, and walks over to Eiji.

"Kill him," Arthur orders, and one of his people pulls out a gun. Arthur knows Ash too well to make such a threat, and Ash knows Arthur too well to think he wouldn't go through with it.

"Hold it," Ash calls, pulling his gun from his pocket to toss it aside, as another is leveled threateningly against Eiji's head. He only has an instant to register the resolute look on Eiji's face, before Eiji shouts, "Ash, save Skip!" and tackles the man holding Skip.

Two gunshots ring into the air, almost simultaneously. The man guarding Eiji falls, but too late. Ash puts another bullet into the man holding Skip, and does not look in their direction longer than necessary.

Skip's cry of Eiji's name amidst the shootout is enough of a confirmation.

"Skip, run!" Ash shouts, shooting when Arthur as he tries to grab him. Arthur curses and abandons his attempt at Skip to jump into his car instead. Marvin tries to follow, but Ash puts a bullet in his head before he could take more than two steps. The sound of car engine reaches his ears and Ash jumps to the side just in time to avoid the car barreling in his direction. Ash rolls to his stomach as soon as he hits the ground, arms braced against the ground for another shot, but the car rounds the first corner and disappears from his sight, taking Arthur with it.

Skip's scream has Ash running for him; he has hidden himself in the darkness of the warehouse. "Ash, Ei-chan!" Skip says as soon as he spots Ash, and Ash whirls around to the sight of Eiji's splattered skull against the pavement pulling itself back together, blood, bones and all.

Ash has a gun pointing at Eiji - _is it Eiji, is it really him? _\- when his eyes flutter open not even a minute later. Eiji yelps when he wakes to the sight of a gun barrel pointed between his eyes and scrambles back, limbs gracelessly flailing and body full of openings for Ash to take a shot.

"Ash?" he says when he catches sight of him, and then, "Skip! Is Skip okay?!" and Ash lowers his gun. He doesn't know what just happened, how Eiji is still alive - _came back alive_, a voice in Ash's mind whispers chillingly - but nevertheless it is him, the ditzy Japanese boy with a heart too big and soft for such a cold world amidst a gang war in New York City. Ash has so many questions, but for now, he is just glad that Eiji is fine.

"Ei-chan?" Skip says, coming out from the warehouse, and Ash has never heard Skip sound so close to tears, even counting the time an enemy of his broke Skip's arm. Skip starts out walking and then all but leaps into Eiji's arms when he is close enough. Eiji stumbles at force of it, but wraps his arms around Skip reassuringly as Skip cries, "I thought you died!"

"I'm sorry for scaring you," Eiji says, patting Skip soothingly on the back. He glances up as Ash tucks his gun in his back pocket and walks towards them, including him in his apology, and something like relief warms Ash's heart when he can see up close that Eiji really seem fine, like he hasn't ever been shot in the head not even ten minutes prior. "I'm immortal, I can't die. I should have told you, but I didn't have enough time and I didn't want you to surrender to them because of me."

"You're not hurt, are you?" he continues, looking Ash up and down for injuries, and then pulling Skip to an arm distance so he can examine him just the same.

_"I'm immortal," _Eiji said, dropping that on them like it's nothing more ordinary than stating he's Japanese. Ash thinks back to his previous encounters with Eiji, combing through them to see if there are any signs that Ash could have missed that signify Eiji's immortality, but there was none, and even now as Ash looks down at Eiji checking Skip for injuries, he would have been hard-pressed to believe Eiji is anything but human, if he hasn't seen Eiji pull his skull back together after a bullet pierced his head.

"Those men," Eiji says, and Skip stops crying now, and Eiji is looking at Ash with a serious look on his face. "I overheard them talking while they were holding us captive. They said you have something of their boss's… Banana Fish?"

Ash doesn't quite tense, but Eiji has his attention now. "Yeah," he says, and then couldn't resist teasing, "does the great immortal Eiji know something about it?" despite the weight that lodges in his heart. Ash doesn't know what Banana Fish is, but it has already gotten half a dozen people killed and them almost joining their ranks. Ash isn't sure how he would feel if Eiji is involved in it, but Eiji merely shakes his head.

"No," he says, as Skip stands, "but I think I know someone who might know. I don't know how gangs really work, but do you… do you want to meet them?"

Ash cocks his head to the side, intrigued despite himself. Gangs, Eiji says, with his baby innocent face. He knows someone, he claims.

Ash couldn't help but recall Eiji's reaction when Ash lets him hold his gun at his behest.

_"Wow, this is pretty heavy too." _

Eiji has never tried to hide, just that it's only now that Ash is beginning to recognize the signs as they are.

"Who?" Ash asks, and Eiji's eyebrows scrunch together as he tries his best to pronounce, "Firo Prochainezo and Maiza Avaro?"

All the air rushes out of Ash, unbeknownst to Eiji, who continues, "Ennis too. I also kinda know Luck, Keith, and Berga, but I'm not as close with them." He tilts his head to the side in contemplation and continues, "Though if I call Firo and Maiza, I think they're close enough with the brothers that they'll hear about it."

"The Martillo Family and the Gandor Family?!" Skip exclaims, because Ash is very careful about schooling his gang on who they should never cross, and those two families are at the top list.

The Martillo Family and the Gandor Family are both self-contained mafia families with close relations. Although relatively small, both families are based in Little Italy of Manhattan since before the Prohibition and has maintained their territory over the years uncontested. Ash suspects the Martillo Family and the Gandor Family individually has enough power to rival Dino's, though they keep to themselves, and the only time Dino tries intruding on the Gandor Family's territory, the Gandor crushed the attempt without even calling on the Martillo's help.

There are also rumors that circulate around the Martillo and the Gandor for as long as Ash can remember. No one can remember a time when the Martillo Family and the Gandor Family did not rule over Little Italy, nor can anyone remember a time when anyone else other than the current upper echelon rule over each family. There were whispers of something that is like out of fairytale, of deals with the devil, and of...

Ash looks at Eiji and breathes, "Immortals," and Eiji blinks at him and then nods with a smile.

"Yeah, it was Maiza who made me into an immortal," Eiji says. "Firo's and Luck's family too, I think most of them are immortals."

Those words click with him, despite how outlandish it should have sounded. The Martillo Family and the Gandor Family are immortals; Eiji is an immortal. So much has happened today that it seems like nothing can shock him anymore.

Eiji thinks the Martillo and the Gandor family can help him. Ash doesn't want to rely on another organization; it feels too much like running from Dino only to fall into hands of someone no different than him, but this is already much bigger than him, much bigger than them all. The Martillo Family and the Gandor Family are known for their neutrality, their interest focused on their own trade and less on power and territory. They have no lost love for Dino and if it turns out they have no interest in what Ash has to say, he knows they at least won't deliver him straight into Dino's hands. More than that, Eiji is vouching for them and Ash hasn't known him for long, but he has already died once for them and saved their lives. Ash finds himself wanting to trust him and if Eiji says, as confident as Ash has seen him in all the time that Ash met him, that the Martillo and the Gandor can help, then Ash wants to believe that.

Skip is looking at Ash, wide-eyed from the events of the day, but still so willing to follow his lead. Ash places a hand on his shoulder and meet his eyes, before glancing at Eiji.

"Let's meet them, then," Ash says, and Eiji smiles then, wide and beautiful, and Ash hopes he hasn't made a mistake.

He doesn't think so, however.


	2. Chapter 2

"Skip, go back to the gang," Ash tells him. "Let them know Arthur and Dino are looking for me; tell them to make themselves scarce for now and stay out of trouble, and let Shorter know that I'm fine as well. I'll be back in two days latest."

Skip listens to every word intently and then nods. "So we'll charge into Little Italy guns blazing after two days," he concludes, and dances backward with a laugh when Ash swats at him. They both know Skip isn't joking. "I'll go now then. Bye, Ash! Bye, Ei-chan! Take care of Boss for me!"

Skip waves at them and then quickly disappear down the street before Ash can say anything.

"Hehe, Skip told me to take care of you," Eiji says, and Ash frowns. "Are you pouting?"

"No." Ash shoves his hands in his pockets and determinedly walk forward. "Come on, let's go."

"Don't walk so fast, Ash." Eiji jogs forward to catch up with him. "How else can I protect you?" Eiji grins, and Ash groans.

Ash takes the least-populated route to Little Italy to minimize witnesses, and the remaining people that spot them walk by and eye at Ash's face and Eiji's general tourist atmosphere, Ash keeps away with a gun pointed visibly at them within his jacket pocket.

"Why didn't you meet with Firo and Maiza earlier?" Ash asks at one point. It is a question of curiosity as much as learned suspicion, but Eiji doesn't seem to notice.

"I was going to, but our flight to New York was delayed and Ibe-san had a meeting with Charlie-san and Jenkins-san - the policemen - almost as soon as we got off," Eiji explains sheepishly. "They didn't want to reschedule, in case you guys didn't like it, and Ibe-san didn't want to risk our chance to interview you, so we came straight away."

"I see," Ash says, because Eiji shows no sign of lying and it makes sense. Ash doesn't actually distrust him, or he wouldn't be heading to Little Italy upon his recommendation, but old habit dies hard, especially after finding out Eiji has connection with the Martillo and the Gandor and he didn't know.

Ash hangs back for a second as the 'Little Italy' sign appear overhead, but Eiji walks on, oblivious, and heads towards the first people he see, a group of men standing around smoking. One of them brushes the sides of his suit back in warning as he approaches, revealing a holstered gun, but Eiji pays no mind to it.

"Hello, nice to meet you," Eiji says cheerfully, as Ash settles behind him like a warning. The men raise an eyebrow at Eiji's careless demeanor, and then at Ash and his pocket, where he doesn't hide that he is packing. "I'm looking for Firo or Maiza. Do you know where I can find them?"

The leader of the group, with a knife wound across one of his eyes, steps forward and speaks. "Depends on who's asking," he says, and surprisingly enough, it doesn't sound like a thinly-veiled threat as much as a valid question.

"Oh, sorry! I'm Eiji Okumura," Eiji says. "I told Firo and Maiza that I'm coming, but I'm not sure if they let you know?"

If Ash had any doubt that Eiji knows the two executive of the Martillo Family as he has claimed, it all dissipated when the man nods. "Yeah, they mentioned you'd be coming," he says. "They've been waiting for you." He glances over at Ash. "Nothing about Dino's protege though."

Ash meet the man's gaze. 'Dino's protege' is far from the worst thing he has been called, though still, it grates. "Problem?" he asks.

The man shakes his head with a huff. "No, come along," he says. He gestures his men towards the outskirt of Little Italy, and they toss their cigarettes aside and stand straighter, looking more alert. Two of them separate ways to patrol the perimeter, while another went inward, presumably for backup.

They have seen Ash and Eiji emerge from one of the lesser known paths, but it would take a man with less connections than Papa Dino to not hear talks about people seeing Ash Lynx head towards Little Italy with a Japanese boy in tow. Dino wouldn't act rashly, but it wouldn't do for the Marillo and the Gandor to not be prepared either.

"Maiza and Firo's friend is our friend, and their friend's friend is guest," the man says as he leads them into Little Italy, stopping in front of a Jazz bar. Soft music and laughter drift out from the open window, nestling inside their ears. "They're in there."

"Thank you so much!" Eiji says, bowing at the man, and the man smiles, just the smallest quirk of his lips.

"See you around," the man says, waving them in, and as he walks away, Ash hears him murmur something about giving the Gandor family a heads up.

"Let's go, Ash," Eiji says, bounding up the stairs to the bar, and Ash follows. Light floods out into the street when Eiji opens the door, and it is only because there is an excited exclamation of "Eiji!" prior to someone grabbing him that Ash doesn't shoot.

"Firo!" Eiji exclaims, delight evident in his voice as he embraces the hug. His face is lit up, brightened by the broad smile that he sports. He waves enthusiastically at someone in the bar. "Maiza!"

Ash glances into the bar, and Maiza Avaro smiles back at him, his placate expression giving nothing away. It seems like he has already heard that Ash is coming.

"Eiji, it's good to see you," Maiza says, walking to them. He continues, his voice as calm and placid as the lakes at Cape Cod, "Firo, don't crowd the door now. Let our guests come in."

"Oh right, of course," Firo says, backing up. "Come in, come in." He gestures Ash in, smile on his face wide and genuine. It's almost like looking at Eiji, if Eiji has grown up in a mafia environment and doesn't break from it.

They step through, and no one pay any heed to them beyond the initial glance. Ash suspects it's because they're with Maiza and Firo. Firo pulls Eiji aside to another table to talk, and Eiji goes with a smile after an inquiring glance at Ash and Ash gives him a nod indicating that he'll be fine.

"We haven't seen Eiji in years," Maiza says as he stops next to him. "Would you like a drink?"

"No thank you," Ash says, facing Maiza. He extends his hand to him. "Ash Lynx."

"Maiza Avaro," Maiza says, taking his hand. The warmth that emits from his hand somehow still comes as a surprise, even though Ash should have known from Eiji. "Let us sit, Ash. I understand you've come here for a purpose."

"Eiji unfortunately got caught in a disagreement I have with Dino," Ash says, as they both take seats across from each other. "He thinks you can help me."

"Ah, Papa Dino. He has caused quite a bit of ruckus on the street to hunt you down," Maiza comments, words containing no censure as much as an open invitation.

Ash says, instead, "Eiji said you made him into an immortal," because he needs something more than just a reputation to trust him.

"He entrusted you with that," Maiza says, and for the first time since Ash has met him, surprise and warmth color his voice. "That explains why he brought you here. You're the first. Eiji befriends people naturally, cares strongly, but has unfortunately, out of necessity, developed a habit of withholding the supernatural part of his life."

"He saved my life," Ash says, and Maiza doesn't look surprised.

"Would you have believed him to be immortal if you haven't seen him die?" Maiza asks, even as both of them know the answer. A knife falls into Maiza's hand from his sleeve and slowly, and he drags it across the surface of his forearm, shifting a little so it'll be out of sight from Eiji if he turns around. The wound wells up with blood for a second, before the blood slides back into the cut and the cut itself seals up like nothing has ever happened.

Maiza's lips quirk as he meets Ash's eyes. "People usually start screaming, taking out crosses, or pointing guns at this point," he says with amusement, as though Ash has missed his cue.

"I saw Eiji die in front of me, I saw his body piece itself back together, and I pointed a gun at him when he opened his eyes because I didn't know if it was really him who came back until he opened his mouth," Ash says, the haunting memory of Eiji's broken body against the pavement and him pointing a gun at Eiji when he healed still all-too fresh in his mind. His mouth quirk, a mirthless lift of his lip. "I think I'm beyond that."

Maiza's smile remains, even as it turns sympathetic. "When I demonstrated it to Eiji a few decades ago, do you know what he did?" he asks.

Ash turns to Eiji at the bar, glowing under the warm light of the room and laughing at something Firo has said. Eiji, who reacts with excitement upon the sight of a gun, pales and panics at the explosion of violence, sacrifices himself for the sake of someone else in face of danger, and frantically checks on their well-being after coming back from the dead.

The words slip from his lips unbidden. "He chastised you and tried to give you first aid, didn't he?" Ash says, and when he turns back to him, Maiza is smiling. It looks different, this time, somehow.

"Others scream, or bring out crosses or guns whenever they witness our immortality," Maiza says. "I thought Eiji would do the same. He looks and acts remarkably like a stereotypical gullible Japanese, does he not?" Maiza's lips quirk fondly. "When I stabbed my hand in front of him, he screamed. He screamed and grabbed my hand, and pressed his against the wound in attempt to stem the blood. His hands were covered in my blood and when the blood peeled away from his hands to return to my body, he said, 'Thank god,' and collapse into his seat."

Maiza glances over at the bar behind Ash. "He's a remarkable young man."

The fondness in Maiza's voice, Ash recognizes it. He himself sounds that way sometimes when talking about Eiji, from one person who loves Eiji Okumura to another. Maiza wouldn't harm Ash, at least not with Eiji here, the same way Ash wouldn't harm him in Eiji's presence. Regardless of whatever they may have to settle on, they wouldn't do that to him.

"You couldn't have made him immortal based on just that," Ash says, because however fond of Eiji Maiza sounds, that seems a little too whimsical of him to make an immortal out of someone he couldn't have known for long, not when Eiji is frozen in time at the age of nineteen.

Maiza's smile dims. "I made a mistake," he says, and his gaze on Eiji turns distant, from looking at a scene in front of him to a memory. "He was in this very bar. Eiji was a tourist who won a plane ticket to America in a Japanese supermarket lottery, and his belongings were stolen on the very first day of his arrival. He had a camera that he was fond of, and the law couldn't do anything about it, so the policemen sent him our way."

"For a cut," Ash says, because that's something his gang does with tourists as well.

"For a cut," Maiza agrees, "except Eiji didn't suspect anything. We were sitting here talking while we wait for his belongings to be brought, when an opposing family drove by and riddled the place with holes. Being shot at and dying is just a normal occurrence for us. I hardly bat an eyelash. When I came to, my blood was back in my body and his were sinking into the wooden panels beneath us."

"I forgot," Maiza says, his expression for a second haunted by the casualty of innocence. "That was my hubris, and he paid the price. The bullets that hit him weren't critical. He didn't die, but he was dying."

"So you saved him," Ash finishes. He glances over at Eiji and recalls the resolute expression Eiji wore when he leapt for Skip, knowing he was going to get shot and doing it anyway. How many times did he have to die for the fear and terror to recede and for resolution to replace them instead?

"I fed him an elixir to save his life," Maiza confirms, "but I could only brew a weaker version due to time constraints. He is immortal in every sense of the word; he cannot be injured, he cannot die, but that's only so long as there's droplets of elixir in his veins. It gets used up every time his body needs repair, every second he is alive and his body tries to age and the elixir reverses that. When the elixir expires, he'll just become a normal human being again."

"You mean he can't die now, but he can die anytime later," Ash says, and Maiza doesn't deign that with an answer and simply looks at him, because they both knows the answer to that. "You can't measure how much elixir he has left either," Ash says, not so much a question as a statement, and Maiza shakes his head.

Ash closes his eyes. "He saved my life," he says, because that's all that he can think about now. "He sacrificed his life to save mine, not knowing if this time will the time he won't get back up." Ash looks at Maiza. "I met him this morning."

Maiza nods. "That's just the kind of man he is." His lips quirk, wryly, sadly. "He's so kind it's scary, isn't he?"

Ash finds himself looking over to Eiji again, in part to reassure himself that he is still there, only to find Eiji glancing over already, eyebrows furrowed with concern as though he has sensed Ash's distress. He hops off his bar stool and speaks briefly to Firo and then both of them are heading over. As they do, Ash can't help but think, I'll protect him. I'll protect Eiji.

He doesn't realize he said it aloud until he sees Maiza smiling at him, the warmth in his eyes for Eiji directed at him.

"Ash," he says as Eiji reaches them, "what would you like Firo and I to help you with?"

An offer.

Firo glances from Maiza to Ash, first with curiosity and then with a bright smile as though he had passed some kind of test. Ash looks at the beaming encouraging smile Eiji directs at him, as he stops right behind him and settles with his warmth against Ash's back, and he leans into it.

The bell at the door tinkles as Ash's lips part. "It's called Banana Fish."

"Oh?" someone says, and Ash glances up to see three figures in suits standing at the door. "Tell us more," the one in the middle says, and even without Eiji saying, Ash knows who they are.

"Luck, Keith, Berga!" Eiji says, waving at them excitedly.

"Hey, Eiji," Luck says, slipping his hat off. He smiles. "What trouble have you brought to us this time?"

Ash studies the men around him and their reaction to the words 'Banana Fish', and thinks, they know something.

He stands, meeting the gathered immortals with Eiji at his back, and extends his hand. Eight months later, with Ash's knowledge and the Martillo's and the Gandor's power and influence, Papa Dino, his criminal corporation, and Banana Fish vanish without a trace.

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Thanks for reading!

If you've read the light novels of Baccano!, you can probably tell at this point that Eiji is supposed to be the tourist photographer that had his stuff stolen in Baccano! back in vol 1. So I only read the beginning of vol 1 before I was struck by this idea, so I hurried off to write it under the impression that it was Maiza that the photographer met. I've been reliably informed by Rev (Ballyhoo) on ao3, who so kindly welcomed me to and chatted with me about the Baccano! fandom, that it was actually someone else, so just in case you're wondering why it is Maiza in this verse, the only reason is because I found out after I wrote the story and didn't want to change it for accuracy at this point.

Once again, thanks for reading!


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